In offshore subsea well operations, it is desirable to conduct many of the operations at great depths and without diver assistance. Such well operations at any depth require precise remote control of equipment. In copending application Ser. No. 743,586 owned by a common assignee, a subsea station is described which provides wellhead, production, and control modules or assemblies which may be assembled with the subsea station without diver assistance and by use of remote control means. Such a subsea station includes guide posts to which may be connected guide lines by remote control means to facilitate the lowering of equipment along such guide lines and provided with cooperable guide tubes to initially locate and position such lowered well equipment. Such well equipment may include a tubing hanger to be assembled with a well casing or a wellhead assembly at the subsea station, the tubing hanger including fluid conducting passageways for fluid control circuits and annulus lines. Such fluid conducting passageways must be connected with corresponding fluid conducting passageways carried by adjacent well equipment such as a safety tree assembly for production of the well. Fluid interconnection of such passageways requires precise alignment both axially and angularly to avoid leakage and also to avoid damage to tubular nipple members providing a coupling interconnection between two adjacent well members.
Prior proposed means for connecting fluid passageways in two adjacent well members have usually included an arrangement whereby divers or remote control robots may accomplish such a connection. Under diver or robot assistance, the ends of the well members to be interconnected in fluid conducting relationship were often difficult to precisely align and index, and when such misalignment occurred, damage to the seals and the connecting members might occur. At relatively great water depths, such prior methods and constructions used to accomplish such assembly were time-consuming and difficult.